Scaling mindset: Hiring is your number one job!

Scaling mindset

As a leader, hiring the best talent is your top priority. You have to hire the right people for the right roles. There are many ways you can approach hiring talent. In this article, I am summarizing some of the best practices that I have followed and this has helped me tremendously in building great teams. Special shout out to Amy Farrow and Ibrahim Bashir for mentoring me on these skills sets. Enjoy reading this article!

Let us say you are looking at filling some current or future positions within your team. Focus on building a great team and here is how I would do it:

Talent acquisition

When you start hiring for the team you should personally start sourcing for the open opportunities. It is your responsibility as the hiring manager to prioritize sourcing and you should definitely block some time every week to make sure you do so.

• Use your network of friends and colleagues and start looking for people who will be great for the open roles. I generally use LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and other social media channels to look for people. You can start with your first and second network of connections.
• Once you identify a pool of candidates or any potential candidate, send a personalized message. Personalization is key. The message should be very concise and to the point and with links to the opportunities and about the company. A personalized message from the hiring manager shows attention to detail and empathy towards potential candidates.
• People are generally open for exploratory calls and coffee chats even if they are not looking to change job roles and companies. If someone is ready for that call/coffee chat, make it a priority and set that up. Hiring is about building relationships and trust with the people. Start with an exploratory call and you never know it may work out for both you and the candidate.
• Sourcing bashes are a great way to build teams. You should invite your team, peers and cross functional partners as well while doing this and helps tremendously in finding talent.

Marketing

• Use your network of friends and colleagues and market about the opportunities in your team and about your company. Don’t limit yourself to one social media channel, use different channels to do your marketing.
• Ask your friends and colleagues to like or post about the opportunities and that will help expand the pool of potential candidates. This can be online or when you are meeting friends and family somewhere and look at all possible channels to hire talent.
• Continue to post and talk about the open opportunities every week. This helps as a quick reminder for interested candidates and to find new talent as well.
• Keep your LinkedIn profile updated, add hiring details and briefly talk about the available opportunities. Lot of people search for the hiring keyword, and they contact you once they see that you are hiring. I have seen this work very well.
• People are looking to work for the best leader and learning opportunities for their personal and professional growth. People often want to know more about you as a leader. Talk about your leadership philosophies and why you are passionate to help people either through social media channels or during the exploratory chats.

Interviewing

• When potential candidates are going through the interview process, help them! Be very active in the whole interview process. You should definitely talk to the person atleast 2 to 4 times during the whole process either in interviews or sell calls. Sell the role, the company and how it will benefit them taking the role!
• Do not compromise on your talent bar when you are hiring. Each company will have different talent bars and you should not compromise on it and make sure you hire the right person for the right role.

Long term strategy

Talent acquisition is not short term, but a long term thought process and you should have a scaling mindset. It is about having a connection with the people who can work with you, the team and the company. You should look for talent all the time.

• When you are looking at building teams focus on 3 to 5 year plans. This will help you scale your team when your company grows and will also help you to be prepared for all scenarios including attrition and changes in hiring frequency. You can use a spreadsheet or LinkedIn recruiter projects to have a list of potential candidates.
• Attend meetups and conferences, schedule recruiting mixers and happy hours and talk to people and potential candidates. If you have a chance to present something you are passionate about, do it! You can also invite people who are already interviewing for potential opportunities with your team. Interviewing is hard, so empathizing with potential candidates and helping them through the process is very important.
• Lot of the times you will reach out to potential candidates and either they may not be looking for a job change at that moment or you may not have open roles. Make sure to reach out to such candidates after some months and check with them again. Sometimes recruiting great talent might take a year or more.
• Keep your LinkedIn profile details up to date. People look at your profile and that will open new avenues in finding talent.
• Mentoring and coaching people is also a great way to find talent. If you have opportunities to mentor people outside of your work, do it!

Out of the box thinking

• When you are looking for talent, even though you may be doing a great job in talent acquisition, marketing, interviewing etc. you may not be able to find the right person to join your team. In such cases, if you are looking for candidates in traditional companies or roles, start looking for candidates in similar professions/areas. Their title may not be the same as the open role, but the job function they do can be the same.
• Expand your search to different areas of the country or in non traditional companies and start ups.
• If you know of someone who will be great for the role give them the opportunity.
• Look at a diverse pool of talent based on experience, skills and mindset.

End to end responsibility

• You need to make sure to own the whole hiring process and drive it to reach your goals. End to end responsibility will be key in hiring the right person for the right role and will help you build an awesome team.

Hiring is an art! The more you prioritize, focus and learn, the better leader you will become and will eventually lead to building a great team.